Vacation
by rivendellelve
Summary: Anko, team 7, team 8, team 10 and team Gai are together on a vacation and many things happen... Pairings:Ankashi, AsuKure, SasuSaku, InoShika, NejiTenten, lightly NaruHina
1. Prolog

A/N: Hi everyone! waves I know I should be writing my other ff but this is a challenge from fire.elve : I have to write at least one chapter every week with at least 1500 words and I have to write at least 5 five chapters including the genres angst, drama, tragedy, romance, action/adventure, general, humor, horror, mystery and suspense. I must use the pairings Ankashi, AsuKure, SasuSaku, NejiTen, InoShika and NaruHina and they have to be on a vacation... troublesome

This prolog however isn't part of the challenge and you don't even have to read it (I hate it anyway) because I've just written it to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings... (if I were you I would wait for the first chapter next week)

Ah, and sorry if here are too many errors in language, content etc. since I don't have the time to wait for my beta (this one chapter every week thing you know) and she has her own task as well ('7 days 7 chapters') So here we go...

Vacation

Prolog

Anko walked through the park when she heard her friend calling after her. She turned around smiling as she saw Kurenai running towards her. "Hey Kurenai!" "Hey Anko, I've got great news you know!" We – my team, team 10, team 7 and team Gai (A/N: I don't know the number...) – are going on a vacation-trip aaannd we still can take someone with us!"

"And you want me to come with you?"

"Yeah!" Kurenai answered excited.

"Why should I come with you? It's not like a need vacation."

"Because Kakashi will be there too and I know you like him."

"No I certainly don't like him! Who could like such a pervert, lazy ninja!"

"And what is this with this picture of him you keep in your wallet?"

"That's – hey how do you – wait have you spied on me!"

"Just a little. But I won't tell anybody _if_ you come with us." She said with a sly smile. Anko crossed her arms. "How insidious... I guess I'm having a bad effect on you."

Next day early in the morning

Sakura carried her bag to the bus looking around curious if she could see someone of her teammates. She saw none but inside she saw Sasuke sitting with no one next to him – Ino wasn't there. Quickly she asked him if she sit next to him and he nodded much to her relief. In the following ten minutes the other shinobi arrived as well except for Kakashi who came surprisingly only one hour later.

With Gai as the driver the vacation-trip could finally begin. Gai started the bus slowly, very slowly then suddenly he stepped on the gas and with a 'zoooom' and screaming they left Konoha. In almost all turns the bus lost its balance and after the 10th time it happened Anko asked Gai "Gai, do you even have a driving license?"

"No of course not but my burning youthful spirit is enough for that! Hey our ferry leaves in ten minutes, right?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Alright I'll right take a short cut!" With that the bus left the street, down the rather high hill. The bus almost made a somersault while Chouji's potato chips flew through the bus. Akamaru barked happily and caught the first but was quickly stopped by an angry Chouji. "Hey don't eat my potato chips, stupid dog!"

"Warff!"

"Hey don't insult Akamaru!"

"Grrr!" They would have fought but Ino slapped them both. Then the bus stopped that sudden one could think Gai crashed into something but they just reached the shipyard.

On the ferry:

They had 7 cabins each for 2 persons and one cabin for three. To avoid any unnecessary trouble they decided to draw for it. So Kurenai wrote on little pieces of paper their names down and Kakashi took 7 pairs so that three were left over. In cabin 1: Lee and Gai (cheers from both), in cabin 2: Kakashi and Anko (no reaction), in cabin 3: Neji and Tenten (Tenten smiled), in cabin 4: Sasuke and Sakura (Sakura: "Yay!"), in cabin 5: Asuma and Kurenai (Asuma smiled while Kurenai blushed), in cabin 6: Naruto and Hinata (Hinata blushed, Naruto wasn't listening), in cabin 7: Shikamaru and Ino (Ino sighed, Shikamaru: "How troublesome") and in the last cabin were Kiba, Shino and Chouji.

After all went into their cabins it was quiet... for a minute. "Yeah our youthful, burning spirits can't wait to train! Lee we're going to run this 100000 laps in no time! Come on my youthful student!"

"Yeah!"

"Lee, do you know where our youthful comrades are?"

"No, their doors were locked and when I knocked they didn't answer so I think they're somewhere else our they just didn't hear me." (A/N: kinda hard not to hear him :D)

"Too bad they would have liked running with us!" (A/N: Why do you think they locked their doors evil grin)

In the evening they reached the little 'Vacation Paradise'. They had three bungalows for four people with two rooms, each with a bunk-bed, and one for five so that the jounins would live in the big bungalow and the others would be divided into the groups of the ferry which means: Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and Hinata shared a bungalow, Neji, Tenten, Lee and Shino shared one and Ino, Shikamaru, Kiba and Chouji shared a bungalow.

TBC

A/N: Phew that's done. I promise the story will be better (nothing can be worse) so just wait...

bye!

disappears in a poof of smoke


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey everyone! waves Here we go the first chapter! I think it's better than the prolog…

Chapter One

First day – in the morning

Anko stretched yawning in her bed when she suddenly felt someone was beside her. Instinctively she threw the first thing her hand could grab – which was her pillow – and hit the copy-ninja directly on the masked head. "I just wanted to wake you up…" He said scratching his head. "But if don't want me to I won't do it next time." He turned to leave their room while Anko blushed slightly. She called after him. The silver-haired jounin looking over his shoulder. "Sorry I didn't know it were you." Anko apologized on which Kakashi smirked saying. "You'd better get dressed." Anko looked down on her realizing her pyjama was half-open. Yet she found her kunais and threw them at Kakashi shouting "You blasted pervert, I'm going to kill you!"

Hearing Anko shout a few colorful curses and seeing Kakashi's smirk Kurenai decided to go and see what happened. Knocking at the door she saw kunais and shuriken sticking in it. Quickly she entered the room before Anko could get the idea that she was Kakashi and threw more knives. Then she closed the door behind her.

Asuma was in the kitchen preparing breakfast when Kakashi came in smirking. He raised an eyebrow. "What have you done that Anko is that mad at you?"

"Nothing"

"But she seems quite upset." Kakashi shrugged with an innocent smile on his face. "I was just in the room."

"Just in the room, eh? Anyway I guess she'll soon calm down." Asuma said shaking his head. Kakashi nodded. "She has to, otherwise one of us would have to share a room with Gai" Now Asuma nodded. "Even you – the master of ignoring Gai - couldn't survive a whole week with him." The moment Asuma said it Gai entered the room breaking the door shouting. "Good morning my youthful comrades! It's been an awfully long time since my last training so I think I'm going to run 2000 laps before breakfast!" With that he jumped out of the room through the closed window breaking it just like the door. Kakashi and Asuma both sighed in unison. "Talk of the devil and he will appear…"

They started to fix the door and the window when Kurenai and Anko came in. Anko actually seemed to have cooled down. After they ate breakfast Asuma was the first to speak. "Alright, you all remember what we were talking about yesterday?" Nods. "Okay then, let's begin!" Whit that they all disappeared.

Ino was sitting at the breakfast-table with Chouji, Kiba and Akamaru – Kiba insisted that Akamaru could eat there too though both had a lack of manners. After she had eaten her salad Ino wondered where Shikamaru was. He said he would get up in five minutes but that was thirty minutes ago. "Hey Shikamaru are you still sleeping?" She yelled to their room but received no answer. "Shikamaru, if I find you there still sleeping you're going to experience the true meaning of 'hell'!" She stormed into their room but found his bed empty. Then she searched in the whole bungalow but no Shikamaru. Looking outside the window Ino saw this fluffy white clouds. She smirked now knowing where he would be. The blonde quickly left the house and jumped on the roof. There he was lying most likely asleep or watching clouds. Slowly she came closer, knelt down beside him and… pricked him in the side. He moaned. She pricked him again. He moaned again. She pricked him again and again and… "Ino, stop it." She smirked. "You finally woke up, huh?"

"I was awake the whole time but it was too troublesome to respond." Ino sighed and shook her head. "C'mon Shikamaru, Asuma-sensei said we should meet at the big oak in about five minutes!" With that she dragged him away.

At the old oak were already the other teams and the jounins so that Ino and Shikamaru were the last to come. "Man, even Kakashi is there, we're really late Shikamaru." Ino whispered.

Anko cleared her throat. "Okay everyone listen!" Now all eyes were focused on her. She hold up a little piece of wood with the Konoha-emblem carved into it. "We've hidden many of those pieces in the forest around us. This is a competition and you'll work with your partner, the one you share the room with. The two of you with the most 'Konoha-emblems' will win a day in the attraction-park 'Vacation-Dreams'! Are there any questions?… No, okay then, the competition ends at five o'clock. Then let's start!" With that all teams were gone.

"C'mon Chouji, we will win!" Kiba shouted and Akamaru barked in agreement. "But if we run that fast we won't be able to detect the pieces!" Chouji whined but Kiba just pointed at his nose saying "The jounin touched them and so we can smell them, right Akamaru?"

"Warff, warff!"

"See, Akamaru already smells one!" They jumped ahead of the huffing Chouji completely ignoring his objections. Suddenly Kiba stopped so that the big-boned shinobi crashed into him. "Hey what's going on, why do you sto…" Chouji wanted to ask but Kiba gave him a sign to be quiet and pointed on something in front of him. A bear and between its paws a Konoha-emblem. Kiba whispered "I'll go catch its attention and while it's distracted you'll go and get the emblem." With that Kiba sneaked behind the bear and started making noise (which means he called it stupid bitch that is as dangerous as a teddy-bear…) The bear however was more interested in Choujis potato chips so it totally ignored Kiba and Akamaru and went to Chouji instead who now shouted "Don't you dare even thinking of eating MY potato chips!" With that he punched the bear directly in the face which was indeed a very bad idea. The bear growled in anger this time preferring to eat Chouji instead of his chips. "Aah!" Kiba shrugged and picked up the Konoha-emblem. "Good job, Chouji! Now stop playing around!"

"I'm not playing around!" He answered as the bear tried to tear his head of.

Meanwhile

"Hey Hinata, can you use those eyes of yours to search the Konoha-emblems?" the foxboy asked excited. She nodded slowly before activating her Byakugan. With Naruto pacing back and forth she had a hard time to concentrate but nevertheless she found what she had been looking for. "N-Naruto-kun, I've found one over there." Naruto's face beamed and grabbing her hand he ran into the mentioned direction. "Ha we're going to win this trip! This should be fun!" He exclaimed excited. When they were that close that even Naruto could find the emblem easily they were suddenly stopped by a kunai hitting the ground just centimeters away from where Naruto was standing. He looked up and saw a certain blonde girl standing at e tree. "Hey Ino what was that!" She glared at him threatening. "I just wanted to make sure that you don't steal our emblem."

"Your emblem? We saw it first!"

"Liar!"

"I'm not the one who's lying!"

"You are!"

Now Shikamaru came out of the shadows. "Er, Ino, I think he isn't lying. Hinata has used her Byakugan and so she saw it really before we did." At this point Ino was pissed off and stormed away. Shikamaru followed her sighing. "How troublesome…"

After Ino had cooled down a bit she sat on a rock looking at the sky. The white fluffy clouds from the morning were gone and now there were only big, dark clouds. She then looked at a tree with many branches when an idea came to her mind. "Hey Shikamaru, I've got an idea!" He raised an eyebrow. "If we split up we're able to find more emblems in less time so move your lazy butt and start searching!" He muttered a 'troublesome' and was about to go when Ino turned back. "And if I find you somewhere sleeping or cloud-watching you're dead! Got it?" With that she left the frustrated Shikamaru. He felt even more frustrated when it started raining. "Troublesome…"

Ino looked at the sky thinking 'Maybe I've been a bit to rude to Shikamaru…' but she shook the thought of quickly and concentrated on her search. Then she heard a drop hitting the ground and then another and another until it was pouring. Nevertheless the blonde decided to go up that hill to have a better view over the area. She looked around but due to the rain she couldn't see very far. The ground became wet and muddy so that she stumbled from time to time. 'Great my dress is ruined.' She thought sarcastically. Already dirty and with the increasing she decided to search somewhere else when all of the sudden the ground beneath her broke away and a mudslide came down pulling her down. Ino tried to jump away but her legs were to deep in the mud to do so and she sank even deeper with every heartbeat. With a last desperate attempt she tried to get out of it but failed. When her stone hit her head she lost her consciousness.

Half past five in front of the old oak

'Where the hell is Ino?' Shikamaru wondered. He was, just like the others, not only wet but totally soaking and was getting worried. Nobody would be worried if

Kakashi was late but Ino wasn't that kind of person plus even Kakashi was already there. Asuma clapped in his hands. "Ino had had enough time to show, we're going to search her. No matter whether you've found her or not we will meet here again at sunset. Now go!" Shikamaru headed to where he had left Ino and started to search for her. He went downhill scanning the area for any sign of Ino but he found nothing. He she had been here the rain had washed all tracks away. "Ino!" he called but received no answer. "Iinoo!" again there was nothing except the sound of the falling rain. Then he saw something in the mud what he hadn't noticed before. He picked the small object up. 'Ino's hair tie' he thought. Suddenly a wet Pakkun was in front of him. He sniffed at the hair tie then looked back over his shoulder. "That's all I can smell of her – the rain erases all scents." The copy-ninja appeared behind Pakkun asking Shikamaru if he had found her hair tie there and Shikamaru nodded. The jounin looked at the ground, then at the sky and at the area to the left. He looked serious. "A mudslide… and Ino's hair tie here, this looks bad." He went to inform the other jounins of their first track of Ino while Shikamaru kept on searching.

They had searched or the whole time and about sunset, when they met at the old oak, the rain had stopped but Ino was still missing. All ninjas were standing motionless in silence until Asuma started speaking. "We have reason to suppose that Ino got into a mudslide and …" he grew silent but then spoke again "and she might be dead." Some were gasping others were to shocked to realize what Asuma had said. Sakura began silently crying and sobbed into Sasuke's shoulder while he tried to comfort her. Asuma himself couldn't speak either so that Kakashi spoke instead. "We will - of course – continue the search tonight but all of you go to your rooms and rest." With that the jounins disappeared.

Back in his room Shikamaru slumped on his bed but he couldn't rest or even relax. He felt guilty for not going with Ino, if he had she might have not been lost. Although he knew that such thoughts were useless he couldn't get himself to think of anything different. He remembered how often she had called him lazy and tried to make him be a bit more active. Once she even tried to forbid him to say 'troublesome' though nothing she tried worked so that she had given up one day and let him be Shikamaru. He closed his eyes trying to shake this feelings of – Ino was dead and it was his fault. Suddenly an image of her fluttered through his mind: he saw her lying somewhere in the dark, wet, left alone and motionless. That was enough for Shikamaru, he couldn't wait until she was eventually found, this would just drive him insane, he had to search for her by himself. Not wanting to be noticed by Kiba or Chouji he jumped out of the window and headed to where he had found her hair tie. This time he started to search uphill. He looked for any sign of Ino when his leg suddenly broke through the ground. He realized that there was an air hole and started digging.

Earlier

Ino slowly opened her eyes but her surroundings stayed as dark as they had been when Ino had her eyes closed. She felt wet, cold, dirty and with the time passing by her body grew numb, in one word: she felt miserable. She tried to move to get out of wherever she was but soon discovered that she was to weak to free herself. Images came back to her mind but it took herself several minutes until she realized what had happened to her: There had been a mudslide, she had been knocked out and then she woke up in this cave or something. A drop fell on her, then another and slowly her dark prison began to fill with ice cold water taking the left warmth away from her body. Her last thought was that she should have apologized to Shikamaru.

She didn't know how long she had stayed like this but somewhere before the tunnel with this light at the end she felt being lifted by two arms, warm arms. And a familiar voice called her name. Slowly she opened a blue eye seeing a familiar faces. Before falling asleep again she whispered his name.

Shikamaru dug in the ground as fast as he could knowing who was lying down there. When he pulled Ino out of the hole he was shocked how cold she was. Instinctively he knew Ino was suffering from exposure. He called her name. "Ino, Ino! Can you hear me?" she opened one eye but only half and whispered something, he thought he had heard 'Shika' before she passed out. Shikamaru picked her up running back to their house to take her somewhere warm when he felt being lifted and looked up. He was dumbfounded to see Asuma carrying them both and being faster than Shikamaru was alone, only carrying Ino. "You've found her." Asuma said with a relieved smile.

Back in Shikamaru's and Ino's room they put her down on the bed wrapping her in many blankets to keep her warm. Shikamaru watched her while Kurenai came and made Ino drink a kind of tea. He still watched Ino sleep when Kurenai and Asuma were gone and he was alone with her. He watched her sleeping until he too fell asleep sitting in the chair but before falling asleep he decided that he would never let something like this happen again.

TBC

Thanks to sehellys, fire.elve, iM a AweOmE gUrL and Vampirewitch for reviewing.

Ah and sehellys seems like I'm not that lazy I thought to be : 2593 words:D

Bye!

disappears in a poof of smoke


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi there! waves

Here's my next chapter and I hope you'll enjoy it (and hopefully review – you know reviews make me update faster hint hint)

Chapter two

In the next morning when Ino woke up she felt much better though she was still mud-covered since they didn't bother to clean her before they put her to sleep. Rubbing her eyes the blonde noticed that noticed that Shikamaru was sleeping in the chair instead of his bed above to her and he was mud-covered as well. Silently she went into the bath and took a shower. When she came back she saw Shikamaru was up as well. She wanted to thank him but he was to busy with other things though he muttered a morning so Ino decided to thank him later. Then her eye fell on her and she thought that she should better get clean blankets if she wanted to sleep there again. She wrapped them just when Shikamaru left the room most likely to get himself cleaned.

Ino heard a knock at the door and went to open it. When she had the door half-open a certain pink-haired girl flung her arms around her neck screaming how happy and relieved she was that Ino wasn't dead. At first Ino was dumbfounded, surprised that Sakura was actually worried about her but then she realized that she herself would react the same way if something like this would happen to Sakura. Mentioned one let go of Ino and smiled saying "Never frighten us like that again or you'll be in serious trouble." Ino smiled back nodding. Then Sakura told her that they would meet at nine a.m. at the old oak (A/N: Man, they're always meeting there - what's up with me? lol) so Ino had five minutes left to prepare herself. Sakura waited for her and then they went there together starting to be the friends they were years before.

Thirty minutes later they were all there impatiently waiting what would come next. "Alright everyone!" Gai shouted over the heads of the other shinobi. "We have great news: Since we are all so happy that our youthful Ino was found to go to the attraction PARK ALL together! Okay follow me!" With that he started running and so did Lee but the rest of them including the other jounins didn't even move. Then Kakashi started speaking. "Those who do not plan to run like mad ones can go there by bus."

They arrived at the attraction park fifty minutes later and – with the silver-haired jounin as the driver – alive. Finally there Kiba didn't bother to wait any further explanations and just head off for the first roller coaster. And he didn't miss much because the explanations were all in all not to destroy and not to leave the park. They would meet at the bus again as Anko already told the students in the bus. During the explanations Shino sneaked silently to an attraction called 'Bug world' and at the same time Shino decided to leave Naruto too couldn't wait any longer. "Man what are you talking why can't we just go and have fun!" the foxboy shouted annoyed. The copy-ninja sighed as if he had expected Naruto to do this and made a gesture for them to leave then. Naruto punched in the air and stormed off dragging Hinata with him. (A/N: Poor Hinata being dragged all the time… eg) Naruto ran full speed when a sign caught his attention. It said: NOODLE-SOUP-EATING-CONTEST! The winner gets enough ramen for a whole year! With a speed even an ANBU would be proud of the blonde was ready for the contest.

During the contest Hinata was behind Naruto cheering on him while he ate one bowl of ramen after the other. Seeing this the people around started whispering and the white-eyed girl could catch sentences like "He can't be human" and "No one can eat that much". She giggled silently knowing that Naruto would surely win the eating-contest. He was even better than a huge guy next to him. Compared to him the foxboy was only a little fly so the audience was shocked to see the kid eating the 56th bowl and winning with that the contest. After that Naruto wasn't able to move anymore otherwise he would simply puke. So Hinata got him some medicine. Nevertheless they spent the rest of the day in the meadow talking or sometimes just taking a nap.

With Ino and Shikamaru

"Hey Shikamaru! C'mon let us try the Ferris wheel!" Ino suggested happily. He looked at the wheel and nodded slowly. They went there and Ino jumped into a cobalt blue cabin with Shikamaru behind her. The man starting the Ferris wheel smirked seeing the two of them for they really looked like a couple. Their cabin slowly went up stopping when it reached the highest point. And it didn't start moving again. After twenty minutes Ino became impatient. "Hey Shikamaru why aren't we moving?" He looked down to the people on the ground then to the iron bar where the cabin was fastened and said "It looks like they have technical problems and we're stuck here." Ino mouth dropped. "And what are we going to do now? Just waiting is so boring!" Shikamaru sighed, "Ino we are ninjas we can easily climb down or we can do cloud-watching at the top of the cabin." The blonde girl thought for a moment but then said smiling "I would prefer cloud watching." Shikamaru smiled back and so they both climbed at the top of the cabin with only the fluffy white clouds above them.

At the ground the park-manager was screaming at top of his lungs. "Hurry! The kids climbed out of the cabin, they must be scared to death!" employees running up and down shouting and screaming like mad. Tenten looked up and saw two forms sitting on the highest cabin of the Ferris wheel. "Neji, can you see who's up there?" She asked pointing up to the wheel. Neji activated his Byakugans and looked up, too. "It's only Ino and Shikamaru. They seem to enjoy the view." With that they turned away when Tenten saw a horror-house. "Hey Neji, why don't we go there?" The Hyuuga prodigy raised an eyebrow but then headed there with her. The entrance was a giant white skull with yellowish teeth. "Well, well a hunchbacked old man said. "Are you prepared for the scariest experience of your lives?" The Hyuuga raised his other eyebrow while Tenten simply ignored the comment – and the man. They went into a dark tunnel with spider webs all over the ground and fake-spiders hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly something white appeared in front of the two. Tenten shrieked immediately clutching Neji's arm before she noticed it was just a fake-skeleton. Again Neji raised his eyebrow in question so that Tenten loosened her grip but tightened it again when the ground broke away and they fell through a trap door. They went down a long slide with green, glibbery slime on it. Tenten shrieked and laughed at the same time. Suddenly there was nothing but darkness around them and they continued falling.

Since Tenten was clutching him anyway Neji decided that he could carry her as well. He took her (bridal style) and with his Byakugans he could see that there was water beneath them so he collected chakra on the soles of his feet and landed easily. Then he walked over to the shore. Putting Tenten down he heard her giggle. She was definitely enjoying the 'horror' trip. After a few rooms - the next one with many flames everywhere – the trip was over though they went in a second time. The man at the entrance was surprised that they actually came out dry. (Ninjas usually didn't visit their park.)

At the highest point of the Ferris wheel Ino and Shikamaru were still cloud watching lying on their backs. Ino turned to look at Shikamaru who noticing her gaze looked at her as well asking "What?" Ino looked at the clouds again but then turned back to Shikamaru with a small smile forming on her lips. Her sky-blue eyes directly looking into his dark ones. "Shikamaru" she said sitting up while Shikamaru also moved into a sitting position. "I know that you rescued me when I've been lost but I didn't had the chance to thank you till now." He shrugged. "You don't have to thank me, it was nothing…" Ino shook her head, which made her long, silky hair fly in the wind. "Without you I would have died there. Thank you, Shikamaru." With that she kissed him on the cheek on which he blushed a little. Ino giggled which made Shikamaru blush only more. He muttered a 'troublesome' and laid back. As Ino laid back too they grew silent again just enjoying each others company.

Ino never thought that cloud-watching was actually fun. The blonde pointed towards the sky "Hey Shikamaru! This cloud looks like a deer!" He nodded smiling and pointed to another cloud "If you look at it this way" he turned his head slightly "it looks like a boar." She nodded excited already searching for the next cloud when they both pointed at the same cloud saying at the same time "This looks like a butterfly!" Ino and Shikamaru stared at each other dumbfounded and blushing a little but soon they started laughing.

TBC

So what do you think? C'mon, tell me! g

Thanks to fire.elve, sehellys and iM a AweOmE gUrL for reviewing

Bye!

disappears in a poof of smoke


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Hi! **waves**

Sorry if I've forgotten any words in this or any other chapter or if I write something twice. This is what happens if you easily get sidetracked while typing your chapter… (While typing the first 5 sentences I got sidetracked 4 times… oops  )

Chapter three

Neji and Tenten were walking along some fairground booths. Suddenly someone shouted "Hey over there! Young man! Are you interested in a little game?" A man about 40 asked with a slimy smile but Neji and Tenten simply ignored him. The man yelled again with a mocking tone in his voice "Hey you with the white eyes are you afraid of a little game or what!" Neji slightly turned his head thinking for a moment before he decided to teach this idiot a lesson. He went over to the man. "Bring it on." The Hyuuga said with a stern voice and his Byakugans activated. The man put a little pea under a cup and moved three cups over the table. He moved them slowly so that everyone who watched it could clearly see where the pea would be but thanks to his Byakugans Neji could see that the pea fell through a little hole in the table and was replaced by another pea in a different cup. "So, where is the pea?" The man asked smirking. Neji smirking as well pointed to the cup to the left. The man took the cup away and there was the pea. "Looks like I've won." The Hyuuga prodigy said still smirking. The cheat first looked confused and irritated but then regained his slimy smile saying "Another try, another game?" Neji's smirk widened as he won again. And then again and again. "He just doesn't learn…" Tenten whispered behind. After the 60th game the cheat was completely broke and the shinobi left.

Sasuke and Sakura were walking over the boulevard with many stalls all over the place. Sakura strolled from one stall to the next with Sasuke silently following her. On one of them Sakura stopped holding up a tiny glittering object. It was a brooch in the shape of a cherry blossom with tiny diamonds on it and it twinkled in the sunlight like a little star. 'How beautiful' she thought. Then she asked the shop assistant for the price but hearing it she realized it was more than she had. Sighing she put the brooch down and went away looking for the next stall. At the next one there were many necklaces and pendants. One of it looked a bit like a Sharingan. She smiled calling "Sasuke-kun." But he wasn't there – in fact he was nowhere in sight. "Sasuke-kun!" she called out again, louder this time. "What?" she flinched hearing his voice directly next to her. Turning her head slightly she saw the Uchiha prodigy standing there as if he had been there all the time but she quite sure he hadn't. "What?" The raven-haired boy asked again. Sakura shook her head smiling. "Ah, nothing." At the right side there was a path that led to the park and they decided – well Sakura decided and Sasuke just followed – to go there.

As soon as they entered the park they heard two familiar voices and they saw the two acting the way only they could without being ashamed. Yelling their slogans of youthful spirits the green beast and the mini-green beast ran laps around the park. "I think we should leave before they notice us." Sasuke muttered and Sakura silently agreed. While leaving the park Sakura saw Kurenai and Asuma at the other end. She nudged her teammate in the side. "Hey Sasuke-kun there are Kurenai and Asuma. Kakashi-sensei said they're dating each other." Her companion raised an eyebrow. "Really? He told you that?"

"Well, actually he told this theory to Anko when I was eavesdropping." Sakura answered with a sly smile. Sasuke cocked his head. "And have you been noticed?" Sakura giggled "Actually yes, and Kakashi-sensei told me not to tell this to anybody, especially not Kurenai unless I want her to blush like Hinata does every time Naruto touches her hand." Before Sasuke could answer anything a bench came flying through the park followed by an 'Oops' from the mini-Gai-freak which made Sakura and Sasuke leave immediately.

Seeing the bench breaking Kurenai sighed. Knowing her thoughts Asuma nodded saying "We should really have told them not to destroy to much instead of telling it to our students." The two of them quickly left while Lee and Gai made their hugging-scene. "Where are we going to go now?" Asuma asked looking around when suddenly his stomach growled. Hearing this Kurenai smiled "I've heard the western hill should be a nice place for a picnic. We could grab something to eat on the way." Asuma nodded smiling as well. With that they left the park area where Gai and Lee still were destroying benches.

Anko and Kakashi were strolling through the streets of the park looking here and there, searching for something interesting when Anko noticed that Kakashi was gone. She looked around and saw a sign 'Lecture on Come Come Wilderness'. The special jounin sighed knowing where he would be. She went inside the tent and saw a certain silver-haired ninja sitting to the right. Sitting down next to him she hissed "What the hell are you doing here?" He just gave her a signal to be quiet so that Anko sat there and listened to whatever this king of the perverts, also known as Jiraiya, was talking but after ten minutes her patience had reached its limit. "Kakashi" she hissed again. "Hn?"

"I don't care if you're reading this perverted stuff but I won't listen to this any longer." With that she stood up and left. Sighing Kakashi stood up and left, too. Outside he saw Anko standing there and an evil grin was on her face. Stepping closer Kakashi could see Kurenai and Asuma walking together. "You said they're dating each other, right?" Anko stated with her grin widening. The copy-ninja blinked not sure what she was going to say. "What about a little bet?" Anko suggested. "What kind of bet?" Anko smiled "I bet they're going to kiss today." Kakashi smirked crossing his arms "Alright, and what if I win?" Anko thought for a moment and then said "If you win and they don't kiss today I'm going to kiss you instead. But if I win you'll have to imitate Gai in front of us all including your students." Kakashi scratched his head as if he was thinking but then agreed. With that the two jounins started sneaking after their friends hiding behind the stalls which caused the other people to stare strangely at them. The masked copy-ninja was hiding behind a building when someone spoke to him. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?" Kakashi turned to see Sasuke's sharp eyes staring at him. He answered smirking "Spying mission" and left to follow Kurenai and Asuma.

"Hey Sasuke-kun" Sasuke turned around to see Sakura walking towards him. "Wasn't that Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes."

"What is he doing here?"

"Looks like he and Anko have nothing better to do than to spy on Kurenai and Asuma." Sakura shook her head smiling and walked into the fun house in front of them. At first they entered a mirror-maze. At first there were mirrors that made them appear smaller or taller but then there were mirrors where they saw at first their mirror images but with a changing point of view they saw monsters. To get into the next room they had to use a quite long path but as soon as Sakura stepped on it it started shaking so that she lost her balance and fell down. But before she hit the ground Sasuke caught her which made Sakura blush a little. They quickly jumped over the path and entered the next room. In this room there were white and blue flagstones on the ground and on the ceiling and water bombs were flying through the huge room constantly. The two managed to avoid the flying water bombs thanks to their ninja skills when Sakura stepped on one of the blue flagstones. Suddenly the blue flagstone over Sasuke's head opened letting a flood of water out. Now Sasuke was completely wet. "S-Sorry Sasuke-kun." Sakura said trying to stifle her giggle. At first he just glared and Sakura feared he was mad at her but then the raven-haired shinobi smirked stepping on the blue flagstone next to him which caused another flood of water pouring down on Sakura. For a moment she stood there dumbfounded but then returned his smirk catching a flying water bomb and then throwing it at him. Dodging it Sasuke caught a water bomb too and then they started a little water bomb battle.

Kurenai and Asuma were sitting on top of the western hill with a few cherry trees and many flowers around. The jounins leaned on one of the trees with a basket with rice balls, sushi and other things in front of them. Kurenai took two rice balls out of the basket and handed one to Asuma. They ate silently. The time they had finished the wind suddenly blew stronger so that it looked like it was raining cherry blossom petals. "How beautiful" Kurenai said as she watched the petals falling while Asuma was watching her. Noticing that the flowers around had almost the same color as Kurenai's eyes Asuma picked one up and placed it behind Kurenai's ear. She looked at him surprised, blushing but smiling. Suddenly she looked away to the right side frowning. Asuma raised an eyebrow in question. "What are you looking for?" Kurenai shook her head and smiled again. "Nothing, I just thought I heard something." She said though she was quite sure that she had heard someone 'aww'ing there. With that she leaned against him still slightly blushed.

TBC

Thanks to C.A.M.O.1 and Only, iM a AweOmE gUrL, lily, Vampirewitch and fire.elve for reviewing:D

Bye:D

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Hi **waves**

I'm back! The chapter is longer than I've planned – well most likely because I was to lazy to write the first part with Anko and Kakashi at the end of the last chapter… **shrugs **anyway I don't like this chapter that much because I think something's missing but I promise the next chapter will be better, at least I hope so…

As things are now I'm going to write six or seven chapters there will be at least another 3000 words… or I could write eight chapters… well we'll see

Chapter four

At the western hill

Kakashi and Anko were watching Kurenai and Asuma hidden behind some bushes. When Asuma placed a flower behind Kurenai's ear Anko let out a silent 'aww'. Kakashi almost immediately clapped his hands over her mouth as Kurenai looked into their direction. As soon as she wasn't looking anymore Anko started struggling to free herself. When her elbow hit Kakashi in the side he finally let go of her. "What was that!" Anko hissed angrily. Kakashi tried to calm her as he whispered "All what be ruined if they notice us." Suddenly Kakashi saw Anko's eyes widen and he felt someone behind him. "What would be ruined?" The silver-haired jounin turned around with a nervous smile on his face. "Ah Asuma, I didn't expect you to be here." The copy-ninja and the special jounin both stood up when Kurenai appeared next to Asuma. She shook her head. "Anko, Anko, Anko… And you accused me to spy on you." Her typical grin appeared on Anko's face as she answered "Well, only a bit right?" Asuma sighed "Since you're already here you could join our picnic as well." So they all sat down on the hill talking, relaxing and - in Anko and Kakashi's case – eavesdropping to the conservations of the other two.

When they left at the end of the day they saw a giant crowd near the entrance around the Ferris wheel. Curiously Kurenai asked one of those standing there why they were all staring at the wheel and he told her that there were two kids on top of the Ferris wheel and they couldn't get them down. Now the jounins looked up, too. "Hey aren't that Ino and Shikamaru?" Anko asked. Asuma nodded and then whistled that loud that all people within a radius of ten meters flinched. Having Ino and Shikamaru's attention as well he called "Ino, Shika! It's time to leave so come down!" The two immediately jumped down which made the crowd gasp in unison. The six of them were about to leave when the park-manager stood suddenly in front of them glaring at Ino and Shikamaru. "What was that?" He shouted panting like a dog. "What?" Ino asked with an innocent smirk (A/N: Is it even possible to smirk innocent? **lol**). "Why didn't you jump down earlier!" Shikamaru shrugged "Because we didn't want to." The manager's vein popped "And why haven't you told us that you are ninjas!" Again Shikamaru answered. "Because you never asked." With that the shinobi left the park-manager standing there dumbfounded.

Third day

It was shortly after midnight and Kakashi and Anko were sitting in their room on Anko's bed since Kakashi's bed was the upper one of the bunk bed. Anko sighed "Looks like you've won – they haven't kissed today – no yesterday." Kakashi smirked when Anko suddenly pulled his mask down a little and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "But I'm going to win the next bet." She said before she lay down on her bed to sleep. Kakashi climbed on his bed feeling slightly dumbfounded since nobody ever dared to pull his mask down especially not to kiss him even if it was just because of a bet.

In the morning

Sasuke was getting dressed while Sakura was still in the bathroom when Naruto came in. "Hey Sasuke! Hinata says breakfast will be ready in a few minutes!" Sasuke nodded grabbing his shirt. The foxboy looked around curiously. "Man, your room is much tidier than ours." Sasuke shook his head "Your room would be tidy too if you wouldn't let your stuff lie around." The blonde stuck his tongue out of his mouth and continued exploring their room. He stopped at Sasuke's bag in which a tiny box was lying. Attracted by this closed box he took it questioning "Hey what's in that?"

"Nothing."

"It's to heavy for nothing." The foxboy opened it though Sasuke tried to stop him. "A brooch? Since when do you wear brooches?" Sasuke snatched it out of Naruto's hands and putting it back he murmured "It's not for me but for Sakura."

"Really?"

"Yes, she wanted to buy it but didn't have enough money so…"

"So you bought it for her – that's so cute! When will you give it to her?"

"Don't know." Just then Sakura came out of the bathroom. "Ah, good morning Naruto." The blonde showed Sasuke a fox-like grin before turning to Sakura "Good morning, Sakura-chan! Hinata said that that breakfast would be ready in a minute or so, so that we should come down by know!" During breakfast Naruto and Hinata were whispering and Sasuke knew just to well what they were whispering so that he shot death glares at the blonde which the foxboy successfully ignored.

Shortly before finishing breakfast Kakashi entered the room - of course Kakashi-style, which means through the window – and waved a 'good morning'. "Hi everyone!" he said smirking. The others waved back except for Sasuke who only nodded. Kakashi continued speaking "Okay listen to me, today we'll meet at our house at ten. The rest we'll tell you there… And Sakura" the smirking Kakashi waved for her to come closer and whispered so that the others wouldn't hear him "You should better make sure you go there with your Sasuke-kun…" With that he disappeared in a poof of smoke still smirking.

Ten a.m. in front of the jounin-house

Everyone was waiting excited for what would be coming this time. And after Ino arrived dragging Shikamaru with her Kurenai whistled so that she had their attention. "They day after tomorrow – to say it more precisely the in the evening – there will be a ball. Everyone who wants to join us can come with his or her partner in our house and just in case you don't know how to dance we'll teach you. Those who don't want to dance will spend this evening with Gai and…" She stopped. Since it was it was Gai it was clear that they would have to train and with her smile it seemed like a subliminal suggestion better to come with them.

Only seconds later all who could grab a partner were inside so that only Lee, Shino, Chouji and Kiba would have to spend the evening with Gai though Kiba thought of dancing with Akamaru. Kurenai looked at the couples: Neji would dance with Tenten; Sasuke with Sakura, Ino with Shikamaru, Naruto with Hinata, Anko with Kakashi and Asuma would be her partner. Kurenai smiled at the thought of having Anko dance with Kakashi since she just recently had declared that she would never dance with anyone but then she rather preferred dancing than endure Gai's youthful attitude. As if knowing her thoughts Anko whispered, "Okay I'll dance with Asuma but you'll have to teach us how to dance – with Asuma." They were in the living room with the coach and the table pushed aside so that they would have enough place to practice. Asuma turned on some music then he walked up to Kurenai. She blushed as soon as Asuma touched her hand and blushed even more as they started dancing especially when she felt Kakashi and Sasuke copying their moves while Asuma explained what they were doing. The top on the list of things that made her blush was Anko teasing "Hey Kurenai why are you blushed?" Kurenai took a deep breath and managed to control her blush so that she was only slightly red anymore. After this dance they let the others try it giving advices to all of them. Kurenai stopped next to Hinata and Naruto, who stumbled around while Hinata was _really_ blushed, against this shade of red Kurenai's blush could be could pale.

When those who took part in the dancing crash course came out they were greeted by a barking Akamaru and a stupidly grinning Kiba. "Hey you know what we've decided to have a party tonight at Lee's bungalow! So I'll organize and you guys bring something to eat or so." Neji raised an eyebrow and whispered to Tenten "Hey Lee's bungalow is also our bungalow." Tenten nodded and whispered back "They could've at least asked us." Neji sighed, "I guess Lee immediately agreed to this suggestion saying something like it would help our youthful spirits…"

The rest of the day they organized all necessary items without having the jounins notice it. For that they split up in two groups: one group would keep the jounins busy while the other group would sneak to the town and buy there everything. To keep Gai busy they let Lee train with him. Then Shino stole Kakashi's 'Come Come Paradise' and let the bugs hide it so the copy-ninja was busy as well. Just in case one of the other jounin got suspicious Naruto would make kage-bunshin…

In the evening

Kiba hurried with a bag hidden under his jacket back to the camp. Carefully he sniffed if the jounins were around. Akamaru sniffed to and silently told him that they were alone. A bit later than he had planned Kiba arrived at Lee's bungalow. As soon as Neji opened the door Kiba went into the kitchen preparing a little drinking game. He took out several glasses and mixed all things together. While creating these drinks Akamaru brought some pills. Glancing at them Kiba shrugged and throw some pills in some of the glasses. Then he placed all glasses on a plate and went with it into the living room where all were waiting already except Shino who didn't want to play this stupid game as he called it.

The shinobi were sitting in a circle when Kiba came and put a plate down. While he started explaining the game Sakura who was sitting between Chouji and Sasuke tried to figure out what was in the glasses, but after she had thought of the first possibilities she decided that she didn't want to know what it was. As the game started Sakura was the first one who had to drink something – when she had thrown the dice and it has shown a 6 – so she took the first glass and drank it at once. It tasted just like apple juice. At next it was Choujis turn, but he threw a three. Kiba didn't get anything either just like Ino and Shikamaru. Then Lee threw a six and took the glass to the left of the empty glass of Sakura. "And what was it?" Naruto asked curiously after Lee drank it. "S-saakee!" Lee jumped up prepared to beat them all, but before this could happen Neji knocked him out. After that he slapped Kiba on the head. "Never let Lee drink alcohol!" Sakura smiled but yawned at the same time wondering why she felt that tired all of the sudden. At next Hinata drank something. Whatever she drank it made her face go red and she started sweatdropping before she quickly went into the kitchen and started drinking water like mad. Kiba smelled at her glass and started laughing. "Ah, she got the chilly sauce!" Tenten shook her head as she cautiously drank her glass which was much to her relief just filled with plain water. Then after Sasuke got a glass of milk it was Sakuras turn again. She took the dice and – fell asleep. They tried to wake her, but it was quite useless so Sasuke carried her to their house.

At next it was Choujis turn, but he got nothing again. Then Ino threw the dice and got a six. She drank it, but as soon as she had swallowed it she realized it was a big mistake. She ran into the bathroom and had to vomit it. Shikamaru followed her into the bathroom and rubbing her back he took her hair out of her face while she freed herself of whatever she'd been eating. Back in the living room Tenten yelled at Kiba. "What have you put in there?" Kiba shrugged. "Let me see, I think I used milk, water, chilly sauce, some juices, sake, a sleeping drug which Sakura had drunken, an emetic which Ino just had drunken and something I don't even know what it is." Tenten was about to slap him again when suddenly Lee stood up again so that she, Kiba, Neji and Chouji had to keep him down. After Lee has been knocked out again they decided to end this party for now…

TBC

Thanks to sasuke-latias, kImYuRI, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, fire.elve, Vampirewitch, sehellys and Nozuki for reviewing

Bye:D

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: Hi there! **waves**

See how fast I've updated? That's a new record for me :D !

Anyway I guess some of you will hate me for what I've written in this chapter but before killing me please wait for the end of the ff – you won't regret it… at least I hope so…

Chapter five

In the morning

The sun rose over the camp and the first birds started their song just as the first shinobi got up, too. Sakura went outside the house and stretched yawning. Suddenly a kunai flew towards her. She dodged it but nevertheless it left a slash on her left cheek. Instinctively she grabbed one of her knives readying herself to fight. Then she saw a shadow jumping in front of her and before she knew what happened an explosive tag was pinned at the door frame so that immediately took cover almost only out of reflex. After the explosion the other leaf-nin out of their houses too although the jounins were nowhere in sight. Hinata was right behind Sakura as a second shadow appeared in front of the pink-haired kunoichi knocking her to the ground. Then he brought up a kunai ready to slash her throat. Sakura closed her eyes not wanting to die but knowing she would when she felt something warm dripping on her face. Slowly she opened her eyes again to see the shadow-ninja over her with a kunai in his throat which was held by Hinata. The blood covering her hands was a real contrast to her almost white, unnatural pale skin. Her eyes were widened in horror as she loosened her hold of the knife and the ninja slumped down, dead. Suddenly all other shadow-ninjas were gone so that they were all alone again. The other leaf-nins crowded around the two girls and the dead body but their teachers were still nowhere in sight.

Sakura went with Hinata into a separate room where she tried to wash the blood of her hands. Sakura wanted to thank Hinata for saving her life but she couldn't find the right words. Eventually Tenten came in and tried to talk to Hinata so that Sakura could leave them. She went outside again to see what the boys were doing. Behind one of the houses she saw Naruto standing and stepping closer she saw Neji, Shikamaru and Sasuke were there, too. As she stepped even closer Sasuke stopped her by standing in her way. She tried to get past but he didn't let her. "Sasuke-kun, why are you standing in my way?" She asked confused. "There's something you surely don't want to see." This statement made her feel even but then when she went past him she saw what he meant: their teachers' dead bodies or rather what was left of them were lying there. Blood was splattered all over the ground and empty eyes were staring into the distance. Sakura broke crying unable to hold back tears as she heard one of the boys – she believed it was Shikamaru - saying that they would have to bury their corpses so that their techniques couldn't be stolen and he also said that they would've to inform the others.

Shikamaru instructed Sasuke and Naruto to make sure all of them would be in his house while he and Neji searched for any enemies within a radius of three kilometers around the camp. They fond none. So after a relative short time they returned to Shikamaru's house. Immediately Shikamaru felt the tense atmosphere that spread through the whole room covering it with silence. He looked around taking in every detail: Sakura was leaning on a wall clutching Sasuke's hand and trying her best not to cry. Naruto and Tenten were each on one side of Hinata trying to comfort her though Shikamaru could see that Narutos eyes were watery. Kiba, Lee and Chouji were sitting in chairs, Shino was leaning on a wall too and Ino was sitting on the floor in front of him with her legs pulled to her chest and her arms around them. Shikamaru looked on the floor thinking of how to begin. But before he could say something Kiba asked anxiously "Come on, tell what happened, I mean why are you all so – so quiet? And why didn't our senseis come to help us during the attack?" Shikamaru sighed but looked now directly at Kiba and the others "They couldn't help us because they're dead." Their reaction was just like Shikamaru had expected: they were shocked, utter disbelief displayed on their faces. Now Ino stood up her blue eyes fixed on Shikamaru. He could clearly see she was forcing back tears. "Are you sure they're dead?" He nodded. Now Ino couldn't take it any longer and started crying but her blue eyes still locked with his. That was too much for Shikamaru: first seeing the dead bodies of their teachers was already hard enough but now seeing Ino in front of him looking so lost and vulnerable almost broke his heart and regardless of him being a ninja he felt tears welling up in his eyes as well. He blinked them away and straightened himself once more before saying "We'll have to bury their bodies or otherwise their techniques could easily be stolen. Those who don't think they can help us should stay here – the others follow me."

With that he left the house but turning his head slightly he that all were following him. Ino walked next to him and still sobbing she took his hand. When she saw their senseis she clutched his hand that tightly it almost hurt. Ignoring it he commanded the other ninjas to get some firewood. After they had placed the wood around the corpses Sasuke had to set it all on fire with his gokakyu-no-jutsu though he first hesitated before forming the seals and releasing a giant fireball. The fire was burning several hours until there was only scorched earth left. Only the five wooden crosses they had built reminded of their senseis anymore. Then they just stood there until the night came. Ino shivered only partly from the cold and partly from the events of this day. Shikamaru noticed it and since she was still holding his hand he led her back to their house while the other leaf-nins left as well. Back in their room Shikamaru heard Ino silently sobbing in her bed as he finally let his tears flow too.

Naruto was sitting on a tree not wanting to go back inside. He knew he shouldn't let Hinata be there all alone but he simply couldn't bring himself to go back inside. He preferred to sit there in the moonlight and stayed there until he eventually fell asleep till the sun woke him in the next morning. At first he wondered why he had been sleeping in a tree but then his eyes fell on the five wooden crosses and all memories came back in a flash. He remembered finding the jounins; he remembered the bloodstained ground and the smell of burning flesh. He shook his head trying to get rid of those images but they stayed, he couldn't even think of something different. Not able to take it any longer he ran back to the camp hoping to escape his own thoughts.

Back in his house he almost collided with Sakura. Her eyes were red from crying. "Morning, Naruto." She said forcing a half-hearted smile. Naruto also tried to force a smile but failed. He just lacked the strength to smile when someone close to him died. So he just nodded and turned around heading for his and Hinata's room. He knocked at the door but received no reply. 'Maybe she's still sleeping.' He thought. Silently he opened the door looking around. The foxboy noticed that her bed was empty. Then he went on, further into the room were he saw Hinata lying in a pool of blood. Without even thinking he rushed over to Hinata kneeling down beside her and taking her into his arms trying to wake her although a voice in the back of his head told him that she was dead. It was clear she was – her wrists were slashed and she was already cold but nevertheless Naruto shouted her name as if this would wake her from her eternal sleep. "Hinata!" It couldn't be couldn't be that she dead, he wouldn't accept it – he just wouldn't accept to lose two important people in only two days. Especially not this way. At first his sensei was killed by someone he didn't even know who it was and why he had killed his sensei along with the other jounins and now Hinata. It looked so much like suicide but deep in his heart Naruto knew that she was too strong for doing something like that. She might appear weak but she wasn't. He called her name out again this time more desperate.

TBC

A/N: Evil me right? But wait for the next two chapters before killing me.

Thanks to C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only and kImYuRI for reviewing.

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: Hey! **waves**

I'm back and still alive and I hope you won't kill me after this chapter but wait for the next chapter instead… **sweatdrop**

I'll try to update as fast as possible – I posted this chapter faster then I had planned so I guess I'll post the next well we'll see…

Chapter six

Hearing Naruto's outcry Sakura rushed into the room where he was with Sasuke at her heels. She stopped unable to move at the scene in front of her: Naruto was sitting in a pool of blood with a motionless Hinata in his arms. "What happened?" She whispered. Naruto didn't answer, he didn't even look at her, he just shook his head. Sasuke went past her to Naruto but then suddenly stopped and looked up to the ceiling. Sakura saw a few drops of blood falling on his face which made it look like as if he was crying blood but then she looked up, too. Sakura gasped reading what was written there with blood, most likely Hinata's blood, 'That was for killing our comrade and the rest of you will die soon, too! Just you wait!' Without even noticing she held her arms in front of her as if this could protect her from what was coming. Sasuke knelt down next to Hinata and felt her pulse but he couldn't find any. He closed his onyx eyes and shook his head. She was undoubtedly dead. Now Sakura knelt down next to him too and told him to spread those horrible news but before letting him go she brushed away these blood-tears with her hand slightly shaking. Only a few minutes later, although they seemed like an eternity, Kiba rushed into the room followed by Shino, Neji and Shikamaru. Kiba slumped down next to his teammate crying and Shino stopped next to him though his emotions were hidden by his sunglasses and his collar. Now Neji knelt down next to Naruto and tried to take Hinata but Naruto clutched her only harder. "Naruto please, let her go." Sakura begged quietly. Reluctantly he handed her over to Neji. Outside hey did the same with her what they did with the jounins the day before.

After a small wooden cross joined the other five crosses Shikamaru told them that it would be too dangerous to stay there so they had four minutes to pack. Sakura ran into her room grabbing her bag and throwing everything what she could find into it. Seeing Sasuke doing the same she wondered whether all would be packing this way. After this she jumped out of the window since this was faster than using the door and ran back with Naruto and Sasuke not far behind her. They all arrived almost at the same time except for Lee who came slowly staggering towards them. His lips were moving but no words came out and then he broke down. Immediately Sakura and his teammates as well as the others rushed to his side. Sakura felt his pulse but there was none. She turned him on his back and seeing his lips becoming blue she knew he had been gravely poisoned – a poisoned that killed him within four minutes. Suddenly there were kunais flying towards them from nearly all directions so that they had no choice left then to leave Lee and take cover in the woods. Not waiting for the enemies to attack again they ran away quickly.

They went up a little mountain path and followed it for quite a while when Tenten stumbled. She tried to get up again but winced and sat back. (A/N: The path is small so that they have to go one after the other) Neji who was behind her knelt down and saw what was wrong. Her ankle was red and swollen and it looked definitely painful. Feeling his stare Tenten quickly covered it with her hand. "Can you walk?" Neji asked worried. She nodded though she didn't look at him "I'll be okay in a minute or two…" Neji looked first at Tenten and then at the others in front of them saying "You guys can go ahead and we'll follow you soon, okay?" Shikamaru shook his head. "This isn't an open area so you could easily lose our track and then you won't be able to find us anymore." Now Kiba, who was just like Neji and Tenten at the end of the group, suggested "I can wit here with them and so Akamaru and I can lead them by following your scent." Shikamaru nodded although hesitantly and with that they left Kiba, Neji, Tenten and Akamaru on the path while they started to climb down into lower areas with more trees around where the path was broader.

Sakura, who was now at the end of the group, stopped when something caught her attention. It was a tree. Normally Sakura wouldn't just stare at a tree but this one had black leaves and one after the other fell to the ground. As soon as one leaf hit the ground it went up in flames and burnt to ashes. To Sakura it seemed like a bad omen. Suddenly she heard a scream or at least she thought so. "Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Naruto asked somewhat worried. "Didn't you hear it?" Naruto scratched his head asking "What?" The pink-haired girl shook her head "Ah, it's nothing…" She looked at the tree again just to find it gone and only ashes were left and the ashes were soon blown away by the wind.

The seven leaf-nins had set up a camp to rest for the night and to give Neji, Kiba and Tenten the time to catch up although no one really expected that they would come anymore. Shikamaru was sitting under a tree in his thinking-position (A/N: just like he did during the fight against Temari at the end of the chunin-exam) seeking for the best way to continue. However he found none: It was likely that Kiba, Neji, Tenten and Akamaru had been killed because they hadn't returned yet but if their comrades were still alive they couldn't just abandon them and leave without even trying to find them. But then again they had to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible since they couldn't deal with this situation alone – they needed help from their village. So they would have to hurry before they all got killed just like Hinata and most likely their teachers. But to travel in night was out of question – they could leave the path just too easily without even noticing. On the other hand they were easily to detect if they stayed on one place for too long, so what should they do?… Shikamaru was to occupied with his thoughts that he only noticed a strange smell when it was too late: Shino started coughing blood and bugs and the bugs came out of his body starting to eat Shino's chakra. Chouji who had been next to Shino tried o help him but was attacked by the bugs as well and even more chakra-eating bugs came out of the forest attacking Chouji and Shino.

Ino ran towards the two but Shikamaru grabbed her by the waist pulling her down to the ground and holding her down while he was lying beside her as several kunais, at least twenty, flew just inches over their heads hitting the defenseless Chouji and Shino fatally. Just then several, at least twenty, shadow-ninjas appeared around them. One big guy – apparently their leader – stood there in front of them smirking. "Now you'll die just like your friends." Shikamaru heard Ino gasping and Naruto shouting "Why did you kill them!" The shadow-ninja shrugged "Because we were able to kill them and because it was fun. Honestly we're searching for a real challenge, just like those jounins. So if you're strong we'll kill you and if you're weak we'll kill you faster." With that he tried to attack but found himself unable to move. Now it was Shikamarus turn to smirk, with all those shadows of the trees around it was just a bit too easy to catch all of the shadow-ninjas with his kagemane-no-jutsu. 'How amusing – shadows captured by a shadow.' He thought before his expression became serious again. "Okay." He said turning his head slightly to see his comrades. "I'll stop them as long as I can while you use the time to escape." Ino stood suddenly before him glaring at him. "Do you really think we will leave you alone that easily?" He sighed putting on a fake-smile saying "Hey, as soon as I know you're save I'll use my jutsu to escape, too." With that he hugged Ino but then pushed her away signaling all of them to run. "And you promise you will come after us?" Ino whispered. Shikamaru nodded before she eventually left. He sighed. He knew he was such a liar.

How long they had been running Ino didn't know. The only thing she knew was that she glanced by now for about 400 times over her shoulder to see if Shikamaru was coming when she suddenly felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She stopped turning around understanding the message clearly. "Shikamaru you liar, you promised to come…" Sakura walked up to her side asking "Ino what happened, why are you crying?" The blonde touched her cheek and feeling the wet streaks she realized she was indeed crying. But she didn't answer so Sakura asked instead "It's Shikamaru, isn't it? He's dead." Ino slowly nodded. Hearing something coming from behind Sakura took Ino's hand and started dragging her away. "Ino, I know how you feel but if they find us now, Shikamaru would've died for nothing!" With that the both started running again.

Sasuke saw Sakura dragging Ino, who was still crying, while he noticed shadow-ninjas catching up with them. They were just too slow to run away any longer. Sure Shikamaru had bought them some time but somehow it wasn't enough to escape those enemies. They would have caught up with them in only a few minutes. He looked at Naruto and made a vague gesture to the shadows behind. Naruto nodded since he also had realized that they would be encircled with enemies soon. The fox-boy also made a gesture and understanding what he meant the Uchiha prodigy briefly nodded before slowing down a little so that the girls ran in front of them. Sasuke activated his Sharingan-eyes, took out a kunai and an explosive tag and slowly counted… five… a branch snapped when one of their pursuers stroke it… four… he could hear their footsteps… three… he could also hear their breathings… two… Naruto, too, took out a kunai… one… Sasuke spun around and… zero… threw the explosive tag. The kunai hit the shadow-ninja directly in his chest and sent his insides flying through the air. But nevertheless it couldn't stop his comrades from attacking. Sasuke and Naruto stopped them. "You're not going anywhere!" The dark-haired prodigy threatened. Now the girls stopped, too. Sakura turned around "Sasuke-kun, Naruto! What are you doing?" The fox-boy tilted his head slightly saying "We're going to take care of those bastards wile you just keep running." Sakura shook her head stubbornly shouting "No we won't run away, we can fight, too!" Now Sasuke turned around shouting back his tone urgent "This was no request, run away quickly! Now leave!" Hesitantly Sakura turned and started running once more with Ino at her heels.

After the two girls had left Sasuke smirked saying "This should be fun." His blonde teammate grinned in agreement "Definitely." Naruto executed his kagebunshin-no-jutsu while Sasuke scanned the whole area for all enemies. 'This looks bad' he thought realizing that there were just too many of them although he hadn't expected anything different. He threw one of his kunai at shadow-ninja who was standing closest to him. Then, while the other blocked his first attack, he jumped into the air forming seals and creating a giant fireball sending it at the same enemy. The shadow avoided the fireball but was hidden by the hidden shuriken Sasuke had thrown along with the fireball. Now all of the other shadow-ninjas came out of the forest encircling Naruto and Sasuke and destroying all of Narutos kagebunshins. Then all of them started throwing kunais with the leaf-nins trapped in the middle. Even with his Sharingans Sasuke had a hard time dodging the kunais and Naruto barely managed to avoid fatal damage. That this guys were just playing around with them made Sasuke angry but then eventually the shadow-ninjas were tired of just playing around and aimed at Naruto so that he wouldn't be able to avoid being hit mortally. Seeing it with his Sharingan-eyes Sasuke jumped between Naruto and the kunais without even thinking and being hit instead of his friend he broke down. Naruto turned around horrified "What! …Why?" Sasuke smiled. "The stupid thing with Sharingan-eyes is that – cough – you usually don't have the time to think before reacting. So – cough – you better make sure – cough – that you get out of this – cough – alive." With that he coughed blood one last time his chest sunk and didn't rise again. Naruto turned around facing the shadow-ninjas shouting "You'll pay for killing my best friend!" But they only laughed mockingly.

TBC

A/N: As I've already said: please don't kill me before I'll be able to post the next chapter although I would prefer if you first let me finish the whole ff (right now it looks like I'm going to write ten chapters…) so please put your kunais and shuriken away and wait a bit…

Thanks to kImYuRI, fire.elve, C.AM.E.O.1 and Only, sasuke-latias, Suzerain, iM a AweOmE gUrL and sehellys for reviewing.

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: Hi! **waves**

Yes a new record! I've posted the last chapter yesterday and today there's already the next! Okay that's the chapter I told you to wait for before killing me so I might explain one or two things by now (**readers take out kunais or shuriken muttering death threats**) but thinking about it maybe I should just shut up…

Chapter seven

Ino and Sakura were still running through the forest and got closer to a mountain again, although if one would see them he or she would rather think of the two just stumbling around. Sakura suddenly felt a freezing cold creeping into her heart, paralyzing her body and only allowing one thought: 'Sasuke.' Ino stopped next to her. "Sakura?" The pink-haired leaf-nin only shook her head not wanting to speak since it was like if she would say that she felt he was dead it seemed to her like killing him herself. Suddenly the ground underneath them shook before it broke away completely and they fell into a dark hole. "Ouch." Ino muttered cursing under her breath just like Sakura did. She looked up to the hole they fell through and then looked around in the dark cave asking "Where are we?" Sakura shrugged and stood up "In a dark cave I would assume." Ino gave her a half-annoyed glare but stood up as well sighing. She straightened herself as she turned to explore the cave though Sakura could see that her eyes were still red. Most likely they looked alike: red eyes from crying, covered with dirt, bruises and scratches all over the body and really exhausted. So they carefully sneaked through the cave which had a few small holes through which moonlight shone into the darkness.

They went through the cave for quite a while when suddenly footsteps, that definitely weren't their own footsteps, echoed through the long dark tunnel. Sakura stopped in her tracks and tried to figure out who it was. She heard at least two, four, no at least six persons getting closer and the sound of clinking weapons. Since they both didn't know where this tunnel would lead them – it could also be a dead end – Sakura hid behind some solid rocks in the darkest corner they could find. The unknown persons came closer and now the pink-haired girl could see that they were shadow-ninjas. Then two of them stopped in the tunnel doing something Sakura couldn't see while the other four walked on. Sakura felt panic rise in her chest, as soon as the four passed them they would be trapped from both sides. Ino slightly shifted her position and whispered to Sakura "As soon as they have their backs to us I'll use my shintenshin-no-jutsu to replace the mind of one of them with mine and then I'll force them to retreat while you take care of my body, okay?" Sakura nodded slowly although reluctantly. "But be careful, I don't want to lose you, too." She whispered afraid of the thought of Ino dieing, too. Ino nodded "Don't worry about that – I'm always careful."

The shadow-ninjas came closer and closer and with every step they took Ino and Sakura ducked deeper into the shadows as if they could fuse with the surrounding darkness this way. Then when the shadow-ninjas went past them Ino quickly formed seals and one of the shadows stopped while her body fell to the ground caught by Sakura who laid Inos body over her shoulder to carry her. The Ino-shadow-ninja took out a kunai and brought it up to her throat threatening "You'd better retreat or your comrade is dead!" While the Ino-shadow-ninja had the attention of the other shadow-ninjas Sakura sneaked with Inos body over her shoulder away. Suddenly a cloud covered the moon and it went pitch black in the whole cave. From behind Sakura could hear a muffled outcry. And only moments later she felt a wet, warm liquid soaking into her clothes. Immediately she put Ino down and felt the warm liquid running over her hands as well. Then the moon appeared behind the clouds again and a pale light illuminated the scene in front of her eyes. One of the shadow-ninjas had driven the kunai of the Ino-shadow-ninja right into her throat because in the darkness Ino hadn't been able to see the attack coming and since her real body was connected with the body she occupied her real body suffered the same fatal wound. Sakura couldn't believe it: Ino was dead. Her blonde friend with whom she used to bicker especially over Sasuke or other rather trivial things was dead.

Horrified Sakura stared at the form of Ino in her arms unable to stop herself from crying and unable to move. When her legs couldn't bear her weight anymore she simply sank to the ground staring at the shadows in front of her. The biggest guy of the shadow-ninjas stopped in front of her and laughed cruelly before saying in a harsh voice "How pathetic! Just look at you! And you call yourself a ninja. Well, all will be over soon." With that he grabbed a kunai but stubbornness rose inside Sakura once more as she shouted "No!" with all of her left strength and ran away. The shadow-ninja laughed saying to his comrades "Fine then, we'll wait sixty seconds before going after her." He counted slowly down before he commanded "Okay! So let's hunt our pink-haired prey!"

Sakura ran along the dark tunnel though she couldn't see where she was running because of the tears that filled her eyes. Suddenly she heard a voice calling her name. "Sakura." Looking around for the source of the noise and trying to blink her tears away she stumbled over a stone, fell to the ground and twisted her ankle. Quickly she got up again and started running or at least tried to run with her twisted ankle when the voice, a voice she knew very well, called her name again. "Sakura!" She looked around hoping to see him. She hoped that much to see him but at the same time she feared, knew that he – Sasuke – was dead. So she said "You're dead." Trying to ignore his voice to concentrate on surviving. But the voice didn't go away – in fact he insisted that he still was alive. After a few more steps and a few more meters Sakura wasn't able to run away and broke down where she stayed as the shadow-ninjas came closer. "This time I really need your help Sasuke-kun, why are you not here?" Sakura whispered weakly. "Sakura! I'm right in front of you! You just have to open your eyes!" The shadow-ninjas stopped in front of Sakura ready to kill her as she whispered "But my eyes are open." On which the voice only responded "Then wake up."

Sakura blinked staring into the darkness of the cave as it began to melt away so that she stared into equal dark – although not frightening at all – onyx eyes. Confused she noticed that she was in her bed and sat up staring at Sasuke in disbelief. He looked at her with a somewhat worried expression. Just then she realized that she was crying and touching her left cheek she felt the cut, that she had received at the very beginning – was gone. Feeling even more confused she looked around seeing that she was back in their room. "Sakura." Sasuke said calmly but nevertheless she flinched. "It's okay, you only had a nightmare." He continued as she finally calmed down a little although her heart was still poundering like mad. Then she nodded and looked at Sasuke asking "What happened?" He sighed. "Well… in the juice you drank was a sleeping drug from Kiba and you fell asleep only a few minutes later. Then in the middle of the night you suddenly cried out in your sleep and when I came down you've been talking and crying at the same time as if you had a nightmare so I woke you." Just when he had finished Sakura hugged him relieved that it had been only a dream. At first Sasuke was a little startled being hugged out of the sudden but then he smiled a little and hugged her back lightly. When she eventually had completely calmed down he asked her what exactly she had dreamed and she told him while clutching his hand, as she feared that she wouldn't be able to relive it otherwise…

After a while she had finished her story but was still subconsciously holding his hand. Even when he stood up to go back to sleep. Feeling her grip tighten he looked at her raising an eyebrow but she didn't look at him and stared at her blankets instead. He instinctively knew what was wrong. "You're afraid to have another nightmare like that, right?" he asked carefully kneeling down beside her bed. Sakura weakly nodded new tears forming in her eyes. Gently Sasuke made her lay down in her bed while saying "Don't I'll stay here until you're sleeping without having any nightmares, okay?" Sakura nodded relieved and smiled tired as her eyelids grew heavy but before falling asleep she whispered "But please don't tell anybody about it." The Uchiha prodigy nodded reassuring "I won't." Gently he brushed away her last tears and waited. When she was finally sleeping he noticed that she still held his hand tightly. Not wanting to wake her he stayed there for the whole night.

TBC

A/N: So you see I'm not that evil, I didn't really kill them… I hope you don't hate me… I really hurried to post this chapter so that all of you won't have to wait so long…

Anyway thanks to causeiambetta, kImYuRI, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, sasuke-latias, nejifan, iM a AweOmE gUrL, Shy-Princess, fire.elve, sehellys and InoYamanaka91 for reviewing.

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: Hi! **waves**

I'm back and as I've promised I've posted the next today. Three chapters in one week… :D

Chapter eight

Fourth day – early in the morning

Kurenai was making breakfast. Anko and Kakashi were still asleep and Kurenai would be too if Gai hadn't woken her up by shouting paroles with Lee running around the camp. Asuma, who had woken up as well, now came into the kitchen. Looking out of the window and seeing Lee and Gai he muttered "Youthful idiots…" Kurenai nodded smiling. Then she made two cups of coffee and handed one to Asuma. Thanking her he took it with both hands and with Kurenai still holding the cup too he remained this way a bit longer than he needed to until Kurenai slightly blushed and pulled her hand away. Suddenly Gai ran in front of their house shouting once more something like 'Youthful spirits have to get up early' as if he wanted to wake the entire camp. Asuma shook his head. "I wonder how Anko and Kakashi can still be asleep." Kurenai smiled remembering how she had tried to wake Anko once. Everything she had tried just had failed so in the end she had bought some sweets and only from the scent Anko had immediately woken up. "You wouldn't believe how hard it sometimes can be to wake Anko." She said giggling. Asuma raised an eyebrow. "Really?" Kurenai nodded. "I'll tell you later – after I woke the two." Then she left the kitchen and went into Anko and Kakashi's room.

Anko had her pillow over her head holding it to protect her ears from Gai's shouting. The red-eyed jounin stopped next to her bed smirking. "Anko, I know you're awake so stop pretending." As the result Anko threw her pillow into Kurenais direction mumbling "No, I'm still asleep." Now Kakashi's voice came from the bed above. "She is awake: She has already cursed Gai for being so damn annoying." Grumbling Anko kicked the underside of Kakashi's bed. Kurenai sighed "I see you two are both awake so get up!" Smiling she left the room and went back into the room and went back into the kitchen. Seeing her Asuma cocked his head slightly. "Why are you smiling?" He asked leaning on the table. Kurenai stopped in front of him so that they had the same eyelevel. (A/N: And Asuma is about twenty centimeters taller than her **lol**) Still smiling she said "Anko and Kakashi are such a sweet couple – they're just too stubborn to admit it." Asuma nodded crossing his arms in front of his chest saying more to himself than to Kurenai "Somehow just one of them would have to make the first step…" Kurenai silently agreed when a thought came to her mind and a wide smile appeared on her face. "Asuma, I have an idea. But I need you to do something…" After she had explained her idea she waited outside to talk to Gai while Asuma waited for Kakashi.

Kakashi went into the kitchen were he saw Asuma standing with a cup of coffee in his hand. "Let me guess" the copy-ninja said "Gai woke you shouting this youthful stuff." Asuma nodded "And he woke you too, didn't he? Though you stayed in your bed…" Kakashi sighed "Yep. I guess he wouldn't last a day without saying things like that." Suddenly Asuma smirked "But I bet that he won't say 'youthful' during the whole breakfast." The copy-ninja with the mismatched eyes raised an eyebrow wondering why Asuma should suggest such a bet: Gai used to use this word in almost every sentence. He shrugged. "Okay." Asuma grinned evilly. "Alright! If you lose you'll kiss Anko – on the lips." Kakashi agreed remembering that Anko was still waiting for Kurenai and Asuma to kiss. "Whatever. But if you lose you'll do the same with Kurenai."

Outside Kurenai waited for Gai who was walking towards their house back from his training session. "Good morning, my youthful fellow-jounin!" the green beast shouted. Kurenai waved for him to come closer with a conspiratorial smile on her face. "Gai, I need your help in a matter of love. You mustn't say the word 'youthful' during the whole breakfast. With that you would help to get two youthful spirits, which belong together and just don't know it, together." He immediately took up the good guy pose shouting "Of course I'll do it! You can count on me!" Kurenai resisted the urge to cover her ears because of Gais shouting and said instead calmly "But don't tell anybody about this." He patted her shoulder nodding reassuring as they went inside where Asuma when he saw Kurenai gave her a sign that Kakashi had agreed. She also gave him a sign that Gai had promised to help and when Anko finally came five minutes later they ate breakfast. Except for Anko all jounins were quite tense: Kurenai, Asuma and our favorite copy-ninja due to the bet and Gai because he tried not to say this one special word. Three times it was pretty close but the green beast managed to say 'young' instead. If Anko hadn't been so occupied with her sweets she might have noticed the strange atmosphere around her. At the end of the breakfast Gai made the suggestion that they could play with their _young _students volley ball and rain this way, too. On which Kurenai made the suggestion that Gai could play with them – they would need a referee anyway – while they (she, Asuma, Anko and Kakashi) could visit the hot springs that were not that far away from the camp and all jounins agreed to that.

After the breakfast, while Anko and Kurenai were packing their bags for the hot springs and Gai was gone to talk to their students, Kakashi stopped Asuma. The silver-haired jounin crossed his arms in front of his chest with his eye fixed on Asuma. "You've cheated, haven't you? Gai knew of this bet." Asuma had to suppress a smirk and smiled innocently instead. "Ah, come on Kakashi. Don't be so paranoid. No one could force Gai not to use his favorite word. So don't be a bad loser." Kakashi shrugged annoyed and walked off scratching his head. Asuma supposed that he was already thinking of what to do with Anko – or better how to kiss her. This sure wouldn't be easy. After his silver-haired friend had left Asuma started laughing. It was just too good that Gai had managed not to say 'youthful' though thinking about it twice it hadn't been too bad, too if he had lost the bet. He shrugged and went to pack his own stuff.

When he went towards his and Kurenai's room he heard Anko talking to Kurenai. "Say, is it me or was Gai just acting a bit weird this morning? I mean somehow he talked well… strange stuff." Kurenai laughed answering "He's always talking strange stuff." Anko shook her head. "But somehow it was different this time." She said trying to figure out what she had missed during breakfast. Now Asuma entered the room and the conservation was stopped before Anko could what was going on since Kurenai immediately changed the subject. "Ah, Asuma could you please take these two bags outside with yours after you've packed? Anko and I have something to do before we can go but I think we can leave then in a bout five minutes." He nodded while Kurenai and Anko left the room and after he had finished packing he went with the three bags outside where Kakashi was already waiting with his stuff. Four minutes later Anko and Kurenai came, too. So they went to the hot springs.

Ino just had finished breakfast and thought of some nice ways of killing the two green beasts as a revenge for waking her when suddenly their front door flew through their living room followed by shouting from the mini-green beast. "Good morning my youthful comrades! We shall meet at the old oak in about thirty seconds so you better hurry!" With that Lee left while Ino cracked her fingers muttering death threats. "You won't be able to go to the old oak after I killed you, baka (idiot)!" And she was about to go to get her kunais when she was stopped by Shikamaru who said calming "Let him Ino. He isn't worth to waste your energy. We should first go and hear what they want to tell us." Ino crossed her arms. "Fine but if he annoys me one more time I'm going to kill him."

With that they went to the old oak where the others were waiting too looking equally annoyed. Alone from Neji's stare everyone except Lee and Gai would've ran away. Now Gai shouted "Okay everyone listen! It's so good to see your youthful spirits burning in the morning and I have great news: We're all going to play volley ball this morning!" Inos vein popped while she thought 'He woke us just to tell us that? I'm going to kill him right here!' As if he could read her thoughts Shikamaru said "Hey Ino why don't we calm down a little and first play that game before we do anything… hasty like killing them?" She turned to him sighing "But I've got better things to do just like the rest of us, too." Shikamaru thought for a moment before he said smirking "Then we could ask Naruto to create one kagebunshin for each of us when Gai and Lee aren't looking and then we all could sneak away." Ino nodded and while Shikamaru went to ask Naruto Ino informed the other leaf-nins of their idea so ten minutes later Lee and Gai started playing with eleven shadow replications.

TBC

A/N: **Important! READ THIS!** Now that the jounins are visiting the hot springs I don't know whether there should be one spring for all or one for Kurenai and Anko and one for Kakashi and Asuma or… So what do you think? Come on tell!

Thanks to C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, iM AweOmE gUrL, kIm YuRI, sasuke-latias, InoYamanaka91, Shy-Princess, Gaara's girl, DancingPickle101 and fire.elve for reviewing.

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: Hi! **waves**

So here's the next chapter. I've asked what kind of hot spring you want last chapter but well I could've flipped a coin from the very beginning: When I started writing 50 percent of you wanted one hot spring and the other wanted two… troublesome

Chapter nine

At the hot springs (with separate baths)

Kurenai and Anko were heading towards the bath for females when Anko saw Kakashi and Asuma heading into the opposite direction and Kakashi had a towel around his head, masking his face. Anko growled "Why does he always wear that mask! I mean he can't be that ugly!" Kurenai smirked "I see." Anko turned to Kurenai slightly blushing "That's not what I meant, I mean – I mean, argh stop smirking Kurenai you know what I mean!" But Kurenai's smirk didn't fade; in fact she couldn't help but tease Anko a little more. "If you want to see his real face maybe you should just ask him. I'm sure he will show _you_…" she emphasized the last 'you'. Instead of answering Anko turned her back to Kurenai and pretended not to hear her. Kurenai laughed inwardly and followed Anko into the hot spring. Somehow they were the only two in the female bath and it didn't look like this would change soon. But they didn't want that to change either since it is rare enough to have the whole bath for themselves. After enjoying the silence for quite a while, relaxing, Kurenai started conservation. The two talked about the coming ball. They had already looked for dress-shops in a special city map this morning before leaving and decided to go and buy dresses with the girls in the afternoon when Anko, with her typical grin appearing on her face, suddenly asked "Hey Kurenai, you and Asuma get on well with each other, right?" Kurenai nodded. "And you're going to go to the ball with him, right?" Kurenai nodded again looking seemingly afraid as if she knew what Anko would ask next. "Have you two ever kissed?" Kurenai somehow had expected this question coming from Anko but that didn't stop her from blushing until her face had the same shade of red as her eyes. She shook her head stuttering a "N-no!" before immediately changing the subject. "But the boys will need something for the ball, too" She said on which Anko nodded. Now Kurenai asked imitating Anko's grin "But do you and Kakashi have already kissed?" Anko shrugged remembering her bet with Kakashi "Not really." Kurenai raised an eyebrow asking "What does 'not really' mean?" Now it was Anko's turn to change the subject. They were best friends after all so they never lied to each other – they just changed the subject. "We could have Asuma and Kakashi go shopping with the boys." Kurenai nodded still wondering what Anko meant with 'not really'.

At the male's side of the bath Kakashi and Asuma were the only ones, too. After a while they heard Kurenai and Anko talking in the female's bath since there were only a bamboo-wall between the baths although they couldn't understand what they were talking about. Hearing Anko's voice Asuma remembered what Kakashi still head to do and said with a sly smile "And Kakashi, do you already have an idea of how to kiss Anko?" The silver-haired jounin sighed shaking his head before answering "I probably can't just go and kiss her – she might kill me for that." Asuma laughed when a voice came from behind "She's indeed quite short-tempered, isn't she?" The two jounins turned around just to see the perverted hermit, also known as Jiraiya, coming in. He went straight to the bamboo-wall that separated the baths and tried to carve a hole into it. Asuma raised an eyebrow "Are you trying to peep or something?" Jiraiya turned his head slightly "Do you think a great san-nin like me would do something only a pervert would do?" Asuma crossed his arms in front of his chest "Well then, are you here as a pervert or as a san-nin" The hermit laughed maniacally with his perverted expression on his face before answering "As a pervert!" Asuma wanted to stand up but Kakashi held him back saying " I wouldn't do that – Tsunade is over there and if she notices what are actually doing you're a dead man." Jiraiya stopped. "Tsunade's over there, are you sure?" Kakashi pointed at his nose "Yep, I can smell her." Jiraiya sighed before he left defeated mumbling something like "No babes today…" After he was gone Asuma asked "Say Kakashi, is Tsunade really over there?" The copy-ninja smirked "No but it worked, didn't it?" Asuma started laughing.

When they left the hot springs the four jounins met outside again where Kurenai and Anko informed Asuma and Kakashi of what they would have to do in the afternoon before they decided to split up for lunch before returning to the camp. So Kurenai and Asuma left while Anko and Kakashi still were thinking of what to do next. After one or two minutes the copy-ninja asked "I know a Dango-imbiss near here, would you like to eat there with me, don't worry my treat?" At first Anko looked surprised at him but after considering the offer she happily agreed so they headed for the Dango-imbiss Kakashi had mentioned. During eating Anko expected something to happen, expected Kakashi to have a reason for treating her or at least ulterior motives but nothing happened so that she shook eventually the thought off. After their stomachs were satisfied Kakashi suggested a little walk through the park and without thinking much Anko agreed.

The sky was pretty blue and the clouds were white and fluffy (A/N: Guess what Shikamaru's doing :D ). Walking next to Kakashi Anko could clearly see that he was thinking of something but whenever she asked what exactly he was thinking about he simply denied it so she just stopped asking him and enjoyed the wonderful day. After they had walked for quite a while Anko stopped in front of a cherry blossom tree with the copy-ninja behind her when Kakashi patted on her shoulder so that she turned around just to find his face right in front of hers without his mask on it and before Anko realized what happened he kissed her. Then he put his mask on again and said smirking "That was fro the lunch." Though it took Anko several moments before she realized that he just had kissed her and started blushing.

Kurenai and Asuma were sitting in a small restaurant chatting and eating some ramen although Asuma was more interested in Kurenai than in his lunch. He thought that since they've cheated in his and Kakashi's bet he might fulfill his part as well, which meant kissing Kurenai. He opened his mouth to ask her something but just then Gai came running into the restaurant stopping at their table. He started explaining something but they both couldn't understand a single word because he was talking to fast. "Gai calm down and then speak more slowly." Kurenai ordered him and he took a deep breath before opening his mouth again. "I'm so sorry but our youthful students used their youthful energy to sneak away. I don't know why but they replaced themselves with shadow replications and left. We just have noticed when Lee accidentally hit the Shikamaru-bunshin with the volleyball and he disappeared. And now we have to find them. I promise for being so careless I'll run two thousand laps around the camp! And..." Kurenai stopped him before he promised another stupid thing and then she and Asuma finished eating quickly and then started to search their students.

Sighing they stood up and went back to the camp starting to search in the area around the camp. Shikamaru and Ino were lying on the roof of their house cloud-watching. Shino was collecting bugs in the forest where Kiba was walking the dog. Chouji was munching chips while making a list of things he would need to buy in the city. Neji and Tenten were sitting on the river where Lee found them. And Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura were playing hide-and-seek in the forest which made it a bit more difficult to find them, well not Naruto – he was too noisy. It wasn't too difficult to find all students since they had stayed near the camp so they met Anko and Kakashi at the old oak just like they had planned and then they went into the town where they split up into three groups: One group with Kurenai, Anko and the girls, one group with Kakashi, Asuma and some of the boys and one group with Gai and those who wouldn't dance. Gai's group would just go and look for whatever they wanted to look for while the other two groups would search for clothes for the ball the next evening. The boys had their stuff after only some hours because they would all wear tuxedos – the girls however came back to the camp late in the evening, almost in the night.

TBC

A/N: So there's only one chapter left to write... unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to post the last chapter this week, maybe I will post it at the end of next week since in the following days school's getting really troublesome **sigh**

Anyway please review:D

Thanks to Shy-Princess, meme, sehellys, kImYuRI, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, pureHEARTS09, InoYamanaka91, DancingPickle101, NoCareChakara and fire.elve for reviewing.

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: Hi! I'm back! **waves**

I guess you hate me for letting you wait that long only for the last chapter and I'm really sorry about that but I've had a little problem with writer's block so I couldn't update earlier… well anyway I guess I just shut up and let you read the last chapter.

Chapter ten

Fifths day – in the morning

Sakura woke up quite late that day, sat up in her bed and yawning she noticed that something was lying beside her pillow. It was a little box but she couldn't remember that it already has been there when she went to sleep. Shrugging inwardly she opened it. A tiny object fell out of it onto her blanket and her eyes widened as she recognized it as _the_ brooch she had wanted so much back then in the attraction park. She took it wondering who gave it to her. She knew one person who knew that she had wanted this brooch but it possibly couldn't be him… could it? When her eyes fell on the box again she saw a note lying inside it. 'For the ball'. The handwriting seemed familiar, too. But it wasn't helpful since she knew the handwriting of almost all of the ninjas in the camp. Now fully awake and about all curious she quickly changed her clothes and left the room with the brooch and the box in her hand.

When she entered the kitchen Naruto almost crashed into her but changed his direction in the last second and crashed into the wall instead. "Ouch…" the fox-boy muttered lying on the ground and holding his head. Sakura helped him up asking "Are you alright?" He nodded. Then seeing what was in her hand a sly smile appeared on his face.

"So he finally gave it to you?" he asked.

"You know who gave this to me?"

The sly smirk on the blonde's face widened as he said in a conspiratorial low voice "His name starts with an 'S' and ends with an 'asuke'."

Sakura felt as if little fireworks were exploding inside her. "And where is he now!" She asked in a way Gai would most likely call 'the top of youthful energy'.

Naruto shrugged "Anko-sensei told us that we can do whatever we want all over the day as long as we are ready for the ball when it's time." Speaking of time he looked at the clock behind Sakura, starting sweatdropping right away and rushing off shouting "Sorry Sakura-chan! I must hurry now, I'M going to meet Hinata at a ramen-diner and I'm already really late! Dammit!" Sakura smiled and shook her head slightly at her teammate's behavior before she turned back to look for her other teammate. First inside their house, then outside.

Meanwhile

Ino and Shikamaru were sitting at the river – or more exactly Ino was sitting while Shikamaru was lying. They didn't do much but mostly Ino talked while Shikamaru was lazily cloud-watching. But every now and then his eyes wandered to the blonde next to him and he often just realized that he was watching her instead of the clouds when she asked him why he was doing so. He hadn't count it but he supposed it was the sixth time this day that he found himself staring at Ino. He saw that she wore her hair down. Usually she would've tied it up in a ponytail but from what he knew one of her hair ties was lost (and too heavily damaged) during the mudslide and her other tie snapped the evening before and since all of her other hair ties were left in Konoha there weren't many options left for her. His right hand went into his pocket and feeling what was inside it seemed somehow fateful to him: He had bought a new hair tie when they were in town. He just wondered when he should give it to her. Right then a small leaf got caught in her hair.

Ino looked down at the river hen she noticed that Shikamaru was watching her (again). She wondered whether he was confusing her with a cloud. She had noticed that she was acting strange lately: to her it seemed like he wanted to tell her something but he just couldn't find the right moment. Also he seemingly found her more interesting than his beloved clouds but speaking of odd things – she was more or less aware of the fact that she liked the way Shikamaru looked at her. It felt somehow… she herself didn't know how to express but it felt in a strange way similar to how she felt around Sasuke yet it was still completely different. It was kind of deeper and not so – so fluttering, it was… she stopped herself from thinking more about it because it would surely end with a major headache.

However she was so occupied with her thoughts that she didn't notice that Shikamaru sat up and said something to her. So it took her brain some moments before understanding what he just had said. There was something in her hair and he would take it away. Again she watched the river. It was so clear and bright blue, sparkling in the sun, although she wasn't quite sure whether it could really be called a river and not a stream. Looking a bit to the side she wondered why he still had one hand in his pocket. "Ah, I got it!" Her attention snapped back to Shikamaru's other hand. He held up a tiny leaf, letting Ino see it before he loosened his grip and was blown away by the wind.

Ino watched it flying higher and higher and further and further away until it was gone. She smiled slightly although she didn't know exactly why she was smiling. It just felt right. Then suddenly she felt Shikamaru take her hair with his hands, then his one hand reached back into his pocket and from the corner of her eye she could see that he took out a… hair tie? He tied her hair back in a ponytail – it was definitely a hair tie. Up to this moment it where just plain thoughts but then realization crept into her mind: this wasn't one of her hair ties; it was a brand-new one that he must've bought just for her. She blushed just as fast as she had thought this in an interesting shade of red. Nevertheless she continued smiling, smiled without knowing wider than before, as Shikamaru spoke hesitantly "Since you've lost one of your hair ties I thought you could need a new one…" He let go of her hair also blushing and scratched his head a bit unsure. Ino whispered an 'arigatou' and then leant against him resting her head on his shoulder. They were so close she could smell him. She decided she liked his smell.

After a while Shikamaru found the courage to lay an arm around her. Ino seemed to feel quite comfortable, just like he did. There were only few moments when he really didn't wish to be a cloud and this was one of them. How soft, silky, Ino's hair was. It felt like he thought clouds must feel like. Somehow he relieved. Ever since he had bought this hair tie he had worried about how she would react when he gave it to her. Would she reject him? From all possibilities he had thought of this one never came to his mind. He never would have even hoped of dreaming of something like this. He felt like his heart had been transformed into a butterfly and was now looking for a way out of his chest. He never had thought that he could be so close to Ino even though they were in the same team. But in such things a brain - even if it's the brain of a genius like Shikamaru – becomes rather useless. So they just stayed there enjoying each other's presence. Lost in their thoughts.

Later that day

The girls were getting dressed for the ball. The boys were already finished but it was like an unwritten law that girls need much more time for preparations then one would think. But anyway Sakura herself was almost done (after one or two or three… hours). The only thing left were three ribbons: she only had to get those three ribbons of her dress fixed and she was done but the problem was she couldn't do it herself – not with only two hands. One big ribbon was one the back and two small were on the side of her dress. She had already tried various things but it was in vain. She would have to ask someone for help.

Just then a certain raven-haired boy came into the room – or more he had planned to but stopped in the doorframe and turned to leave again. But Sakura had seen him and so she called after him. "Sasuke-kun!" He stopped and turned back waiting for whatever was coming. Smiling sheepishly she held up one ribbon-tie. "Could you please help me with that?" The Uchiha raised an eyebrow but briefly nodded and walked up to her side while she explained what they had to do with those ribbons. He stepped behind her, took one band and started wrapping it around her waist several times while she held the other ties so that they wouldn't get into the way. Sakura tried her best to stand absolutely still while the Uchiha prodigy was helping but there was one big problem: she was ticklish and what he was doing tickled like hell; she couldn't help but giggle plus when she tried to suppress it she only had to laugh harder.

"Sakura stop laughing, I can't fix it like this!" Sasuke sounded a bit annoyed.

"I'm – sorry – Sasuke-kun I can't help it – I'm ticklish!" She managed to say between giggles.

He stopped fixing her dress saying "Then just stopped being ticklish."

Sakura turned around, facing him still slightly giggling "C'mon Sasuke-kun no one can stop being ticklish!"

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Then why don't you just pretend not to be ticklish?" He suggested smirking.

"This wouldn't work because there isn't anyone in the whole world who is not at least a bit ticklish." She gave back now also smirking.

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm not ticklish."

"Is that so…" A rather evil – Anko-like – grin appeared on her face as she suddenly attacked (tickled) him trying to make him laugh.

"Stop it!"

"Not before you've laughed – or admitted that you're ticklish!"

"Fine…" He wasn't laughing but at least he had to smile when he fought (tickled) back so that Sakura laughed enough for both of them.

Out of nowhere there was a pillow or something in the way, one stumbled and they both fell down. Sakura closed her eyes when she fell but then when she opened them again she realized that she had landed on top of Sasuke and their faces were only a few centimeters apart. She blushed and he did too although his blush was so light that it was barely noticeable. Then Sakura remembered why she had been searching for him earlier. "Sasuke" she said increasing the distance between their faces. "This brooch… you gave it to me, didn't you?"

"Hn, yeah… but it was nothing." He said and seemingly found the lamp quite interesting.

"No it wasn't. It's such a beautiful brooch and I – I want to thank you for it. Arigatou." With that she bent down and kissed her raven-haired teammate on his cheek. At first he was surprised but only while the kiss lasted. Then when she moved back a small smile appeared on his face as he muttered "You think you can do something like that to an Uchiha and get away with it?" Just then he reached up, brushing with his right hand some strands of Sakura's pink hair out of her face and kissed her back on the lips. Sakura closed her eyes enjoying these seconds, which seemed like an eternity to her (she definitely liked this eternity)… until someone made a loud noise in the kitchen and both remembered where they were (in place called reality) and they almost immediately broke apart. Then they started fixing Sakura's dress again although they glanced at each other from time to time still slightly blushed.

Sakura however wasn't the only one with a problem: Tenten had had to put away all of her weapons in order to wear her dress. She liked this dress it was just not fitted to hide any weapons. But that wasn't her problem although her real problem had something to do with weapons as well. In a moment she hadn't been careful of where she moved some of her knives with barbs got caught in her dress and now she desperately tried to get them out, unfortunately she was running out of time. She heard a knock on the door and only a heartbeat later Neji's voice. "Tenten, it's almost time to leave. Are you ready?" He asked. She looked at her dress with these annoying knives sticking to it like glue. Feeling frustrated she called back to Neji "Ah Neji, I've got a little problem here and could you help me out?" The Hyuuga came in and seeing her problem he raised an eyebrow and said teasing "You really can't go anywhere without your weapons, can you?" She stuck her tongue out of her mouth before they both tried to remove this little annoying knives. The knives were, in battles, not mainly used to harm the enemy otherwise her dress would be sliced in two but that didn't make removing them without ripping the dress easier.

After a while Neji gave up on it. He possibly couldn't remove any of the knives without harming either Tenten or the dress so he suggested he suggested that she should try to remove it while she wasn't wearing it. She first looked at him but then gave him a sign to turn around. "And no peeping!" She warned. "And don't even _think_ of using your Byakugan!" He sighed inwardly. If she thought he would do something like that she must be confusing him with Jiraiya. He crossed his arms and waited patiently. Suddenly he heard a high scream coming from Tenten. Without thinking the Hyuuga turned around and saw a fat spider hanging right in front of Tenten's face. Then he saw Tenten. Without her dress. And she saw him. Both blushed Hinata-style. Just then Tenten discovered that all off her weapons were still lying around her (A/N: poor Neji) and in a split second they all came flying towards Neji who jumped surprisingly fast out of the room slamming the door shut behind him. At least now Tenten had no problem to get the little knives out of her dress. (A/N: good for her and the dress, bad for Neji and the door **lol**)

Hinata was standing in her room right before the door. She knew that they would leave in only a few minutes and she knew that Naruto was waiting for on the other side of the door (impatiently). It was not like she didn't want to go to him it was more like her legs weren't moving. On top of that she was more than just a bit worried that she would faint or do anything else stupid during the ball. But then her worries were forgotten when a certain fox-boy opened and took her hand saying "Hinata-chan we don't have any time to waste so let's go!" A _really _deep blush appeared on her face – Naruto had just called her Hinata-_chan_. But somehow she managed not to faint and nodded feeling happy.

Outside the other couples were already waiting. Ino and Shikamaru and Sasuke and Sakura were even holding hands. (Not to mention that Naruto was still holding her hand.) Her cousin and Tenten however weren't even looking at each other. She guessed that something must have happened between them but with Naruto at her side she couldn't really think about it, especially because she tried not to blush even more. (A/N: wasted effort… **eg**) So after they all were there they went into the bus and with Asuma as he driver they soon arrived in town and after a short walk they stopped in front of a two storied house with a large balcony. The hall for their ball was on the upper floor.

Anko smirked seeing the youths look around in the huge hall in amusement. No wonder the hall was definitely larger than one would expect from the outside and it looked somewhat… expensive. Somewhere in the distance a bell rang and as if this was the signal the musicians started playing the first song. It was a rather slow one but well fitted for couples. Kakashi held one hand out to Anko, she took it and he led her towards the center of the hall. Now it was really helpful that Kakashi had copied Asuma's moves since Anko hadn't paid much attention to the lesson itself. She was more concentrated on teasing. It would be a great night for all of them. Only one tiny thing still annoyed her: Kakashi was even here wearing his mask. It wasn't surprising but it was nevertheless annoying. She wondered how one could look so handsome when one eye was the only thing of his face that wasn't hidden beneath fabric. So maybe his mask only annoyed her because she still wanted to see his face. Sure, it had been visible the day before when he had kissed her but she had been much too surprised to see it. But on the other hand for Kakashi it was good that she had been so dumbfounded otherwise she might have gotten the funny idea of killing him (well maybe not she wasn't really the type for that a slap on the head would've been enough). But so she just followed him secretly touching her lips with one finger.

Unsatisfied with the way things turned out Anko decided to make sure that she would see his real face and since she wasn't known to be very patient she started it right now the direct way.

"Hey Kakashi, what's under your mask?" She asked.

"Hmm, my nose, my mouth and the rest of my face, I guess. Oh and sometimes another mask."

"That's not what I've meant, I want to see your real face!"

"I thought you've seen it yesterday." He replied smirking.

"That's been to short to really see it. So are you going to pull your mask down?"

"No."

"C'mon!"

"Errr, no."

"Please!"

"Nope."

"Don't be so mean!" She looked at him with big puppy dog eyes.

He sighed knowing when he was defeated. "Okay, okay. But not here, I'm only going to show it to you."

"Alright!" At least the smile, which now appeared on Anko's face, was worth it.

On the other side of the hall Neji and Tenten were dancing. An uncomfortable silence had settled between the two since that _incidence_. After some time both started speaking the very same moment

"Neji, I…"

"Tenten, I…"

and they both stopped speaking the very same moment smiling nervously.

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

Then they were silent again before Neji started speaking. "Tenten, I'm sorry for… for earlier. I didn't want to peep or something, really. It was just… when you screamed so suddenly, I turned without thinking so…"

Tenten interrupted him. "You don't have to apologize, it's all my fault. Screaming like a little child only because there's a spider…" She looked down at the floor and mentally slapped herself for being so stupid back then. She had planned to continue staring at the floor but for some reason her eyes found the white, deep eyes of a certain someone more interesting as she continued speaking in a low almost inaudible voice. "And I'm really sorry about throwing the knives, daggers, kunais, shuriken and everything else at you; I've just overreacted… Did I hit you?" Now she had a little problem whether she should look at the floor or at Neji but when her eyes traveled to the floor he helped deciding it by lifting her chin with his hand a little so that she had to look at him.

He smiled and gently replied "No, I'm alright. I guess if you really would've wanted to hit me I couldn't say that right now so there's nothing to worry about." Tenten smiled relieved and rested her head against his chest on which Neji lightly hugged her.

The ball had lasted for quite a while now and the night had already fallen. A full moon was illuminating the balcony as well as the two figures on it. The smaller figure was leaning on the railing while the other was standing in front of her. Kurenai looked back into the hall where the other couples were still dancing. "The ball was a good idea, wasn't it?" she more stated than asked and her partner just nodded. His eyes still rested on Kurenai as he was waiting for the right moment. Knowing Kurenai it wouldn't be good if he missed it. Of course Kurenai wasn't the type who would do something _drastic_ but he wanted their relationship to develop into the right direction and it could take years before he got such a chance again.

Kurenai looked once again at him asking "Asuma, you haven't been smoking that much lately…"

That was it. He smirked not letting her finish what she wanted to say. "Do you want to know why?" With that he pulled Kurenai towards him and finally kissed her. At first her body stiffened though she didn't pull away but then, deeply blushed, she allowed him to kiss her closing her eyes. When they eventually broke apart Asuma finished what he had started saying before. "Because a cigarette would only be in the way." Then smirking again he also pulled her towards him once more. (To bad that they had to breathe very now and then…)

The ball was over and all of the shinobi were back at the camp in their rooms. All except Anko and Kakashi who had decided to take a little walk together in the moonlight. They stopped under a tree. "So" Anko asked impatiently with her typical grin. "We're alone here so now why don't you take that mask off?" The copy-ninja scratched his head knowing that she wouldn't accept a 'no' as an answer and so he lifted his right hand to his mask and pulled it down slowly… slowly… just to tease Anko a bit since she would be one of the few people who were allowed to see his real face. Then the mask was down. (A/N: Don't you wish you were Anko in this moment?)

"So I've been right there isn't any reason why he should hide his face." Anko thought… or at least she thought that she had thought it.

"Is that so?" Kakashi asked looking and sounding amused.

Anko realized what she just had said out loud and immediately blushed. (A blush Hinata would be proud of.) The silver-haired jounin chuckled which made Anko's blush only deepen. She wondered why she only did stupid things like this when Kakashi was around. Then he was about to put on his mask again but Anko saw it and took his hand asking with a smile. "Since we are alone here you really could let it down, at least until we've finished our walk, could you?" He smiled back and granted her wish even if it was only for the short time their walk would last. While walking he laid an arm around her shoulder so that they walked a bit closer than they had to.

In the next morning they all packed and left for the ferry which would take them back to Konoha, back to their normal, daily life (if you can call a ninja's life 'normal') and although they now had to leave they surely would never forget this vacation.

The end

A/N: So this was the last chapter. I hope you liked it although I still wonder whether there was too much romance in it (I've only planned SasuSaku and AsuKure here but I'm bad at planning as you can see). At least with 4179 words it's surely long enough, usually I write only about 1500 for a chapter.

So thanks to Narutorules, meme, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, Shy-Princess, fire.elve, DancingPickle101, NoCareChakara and kImYuRI for reviewing.

And special thanks to fire.elve and greenleaf.elve for the idea for the NejiTenten-part.

And of course thanks to all of my readers:D

So after this is done I only wonder which ff I should write… I don't really feel like 'Two rivals-one mission' so should I write my sasusaku-ff or my ankashi-ff… oh well we'll see.

Bye:D

**waves and disappears in a poof of smoke**


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